Colombia worries trade disputes will impact economy

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02:02

Colombia, a strong rice exporter has a free trade agreement with the US. However, some of the country's experts fear its economy could be slammed by the fallout from the Washington-Beijing trade disputes.

Colombia is the second largest consumer of rice in Latin America and the country's production could meet its consumption needs. Colombia's Rice Federation (CRF) has been working hard to lower production costs and use technology to increase production and compete with the low price of US rice imports.

Blanca Ruth Perdomo has been a rice farmer for almost half a century, and says that they hope Colombia can someday export rice with advanced technology.

But as the US-China trade war continues, US producers are exploring other markets. CRF worries that highly subsidized agricultural products from the US will be pushed into Latin America.

"In the past, a large part of the products that could reach us have gone to China. When this trade stops, the pressure will fall on other countries, especially those that have free trade agreements with the US, like Colombia, because they can push more rice than we need," said Rafael Hernandez, general manager of Fedearroz.

Women working at a Colombian coffee farm. /VCG Photo

Beethoven Herrera, an economist working at the National University of Colombia, worries about the effects that the US-China trade war will have on the overall US economy, and how that could also impact Colombia.

"Any protectionist measures that might lower the United States consumption rates or paralyze the economy would be bad for Colombia, because the United States buys half of our exports," the economist said.

Colombia's rice farmers reached record levels of production and even had enough to export for the first time in their history, but a drop in the price of rice last year brought on a crisis. Despite current challenges and future uncertainty, Colombia's rice farmers remain optimistic, and have even bigger ambitions.

“If we set our minds to it, we could even export to China,” said Blanca Ruth.